United Nations is asking Ireland about the right to an alternative to religion class in schools
Atheist Ireland will be attending the 92nd session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva later this month. This UN Committee will be questioning Ireland, and we have made a joint submission with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland. You can find ...
The state should not allow Catholic bishops to segregate schoolchildren by religion
The Irish Times got documents under FOI that show that the Catholic Bishops are concerned over the ability of Catholic primary schools to keep their ethos. The reason for this concern is because publicly funded Catholic schools can no longer give preference to children from catholic families. You can find ...
FOI document shows Catholic bishops reversed Department of Education’s support for parents’ rights
Atheist Ireland has obtained, under the Freedom of Information Act, notes of a meeting between the Department of Education and representatives of the Catholic Church in 2018. At that meeting, the Department told the Catholic Church that ETB schools must respect the constitutional rights of parents for their children to ...
New primary curriculum framework does not address rights of nonreligious families
There is an Article in the Irish Times today “Primary schools to teach foreign languages as religion time cut under new proposals” by Carl O'Brien regarding a new Framework for the Primary school curriculum. It is to be published in 2023 by Minister Norma Foley. As usual this document addresses ...
Documents about misuse of state funds regarding religious instruction
Since December 2021, Atheist Ireland has been lobbying to vindicate the constitutional right to not attend religious instruction in schools, and to uphold parental authority in the education of their children, which the Supreme Court has described as a foundational pillar of the Constitution. As well as lobbying individual politicians ...
Atheist Ireland letter to Department of Education December 2022
Atheist Ireland wrote this letter to the Department of Education on 5 December 2022. [pdf-embedder url="https://www.teachdontpreach.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AI-to-Dept-Ed-Dec-2022.pdf" title="AI to Dept Ed Dec 2022"]
Atheist Ireland letter to Oireachtas Education Committee December 2022
Atheist Ireland wrote this letter to the Oireachtas Education Committee on 5 December 2022. [pdf-embedder url="https://www.teachdontpreach.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AI-to-Ed-Com-Dec-2022.pdf" title="AI to Ed Com Dec 2022"]
Atheist Ireland letter to Comptroller and Auditor General December 2022
Atheist Ireland wrote this letter to the Comptroller and Auditor General on 5 December 2022. [pdf-embedder url="https://www.teachdontpreach.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AI-to-CAG-Dec-2022.pdf" title="AI to CAG Dec 2022"]
Atheist Ireland letter to Public Accounts Committee December 2022
Atheist Ireland wrote this letter to the Public Accounts Committee on 5 December 2022. [pdf-embedder url="https://www.teachdontpreach.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AI-to-PAC-Dec-2022.pdf" title="AI to PAC Dec 2022"]
Parents, not church or state, have the right to provide religious and moral education
The Catholic Bishops wrote to the Dept of Education in 2018, in relation to Circular Letter 0013/2018 issued by the Department of Education. This Circular obliged ETB schools to give students another subject if they exercised their right to not attend religious instruction. It recognised that schools should offer students ...